Make scalar act like file path

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I need to use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel to generate spreadsheets with images embedded. Spreadsheet::WriteExcel has a method, insert_image, that allows images to be inserted by specifying a path to the image. However, I need to pass a scalar containing the image data instead of a path because my images will either be loaded from a database or generated programmatically. Is there a way to make the scalar act like a path, but pass the data contained in the scalar after a call to open? Is there a different, simpler way to solve this?

Thanks in advance,

--TWH

Comment on Make scalar act like file path

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Re: Make scalar act like file path by wind (Priest) on May 24, 2011 at 23:53 UTC
I believe the simpliest solution would be to just write the contents to a temporary file and then include the image like your normally do. Could use File::Temp.	[reply]
Re: Make scalar act like file path by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on May 26, 2011 at 01:38 UTC
I don’t think that you have yet adequately described your scenario. Considering the respective roles of both the server-side computer (the Perl code that generates this file) and the client-side computer (running Excel, and presumably attached to some network?), exactly who does what, and exactly when?